Report: Cardiff City 1-0 Wednesday

Wednesday battled hard against high-flying Cardiff City on Sunday but their efforts could not prevent a sixth defeat on the spin on boss Dave Jones's return to his former club.

Craig Conway struck the winner ten minutes from time to make it ten wins from as many home matches for the Bluebirds, who moved to the top of the Championship following the win and kept Wednesday in the bottom three.

The visitors, who went into the match on the back of five straight defeats and with questions over the future of Jones at the Hillsborough helm, put up good resistance to the Cardiff pressure for the most part, and even had chances to nick a goal at the other end, but could not hold out for a point.

Jones made a number of changes to the side that got thrashed 4-1 on home soil against Watford in midweek. Chris O'Grady returned to the attack while David Prutton was a shock inclusion in midfield, as was Danny Mayor.

The Bluebirds, with the carrot of a place at the top of the table hanging in front of them with three points, started well and Andrew Taylor fired an effort over Chris Kirkland's bar early on.

Wednesday's response came from a set-piece following a foul on O'Grady in a dangerous position at the edge of the box but defender Miguel Llera directed his effort straight into the Cardiff wall.

The hosts went on to enjoy the bulk of the possession and Wednesday had to be well organised at the back. Martin Taylor, who has come in for his fair amount of criticism for his performances following his switch from Watford, had arguably his best game in an Owls shirt as he led the visitors' back line well for the most part.

Wednesday had to be on-song at the back - City were ploughing forward in numbers in search for the opener and Jordon Mutch tested Kirkland with one effort.

The hosts were being limited to half-chances and long-range efforts, however, and Jones will have pleased at the way his side limited his former club going into the half-time interval.

The Owls also had to contend with the loss of Mamady Sidibe through injury, with the on-loan Stoke City man coming off just after the half-hour mark to be replaced by Gary Madine.

The momentum continued to be firmly in Cardiff's favour of the restart with Heidar Helguson and Craig Bellamy causing the Owls' defence plenty of problems with their pace and experience.

The duo carved out an early chance in the second half but they could not test Kirkland.

As the match wore on Wednesday could well sense a chance to hit their hosts, pushing more men forward in search of that decisive goal, on the break and they were unfortunate not to do just that.

Mayor put Madine in but last season's top-scorer saw his shot comfortably saved by Cardiff goalkeeper David Marshall. It was a good opportunity for Wednesday and one they should have done better with given chances were at a premium.

The Bluebirds, now playing in red as their home colour, were still a threat and substitute Rudy Gestede almost made the perfect introduction when he came on to replace Helguson but directed his header wide.

Wednesday only had ten minutes to hold out when City grabbed a cruel winner. Conway was given the time at the edge of the box to drill home for the hosts and leave the Owls with nothing to show for their efforts.

The visitors did have a couple of chances from corner kicks late on, with Kirkland coming forward on one occasion and heading towards goal only for the referee to blow for a foul.

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i laughed my socks off when i saw wednesdays team line up today, if thats the best team he could have put out today then hes deffo sending us down, glad to see sidibe was injured hope he goes back to stoke now. sorry to all the fans who went to watch that dismal performance.

Despite my previous posts I'm strangely disappointed. Its what I expected but I can see this narrow result, (no reference to the team selected or the performance), being seen in at least two places as encouraging rather than being the last straw which leads to a change of manager. My money's on DJ still being in place next Saturday. But cut it how you like we are now one of four adrift at the foot of the table.

Whilst I can understand the criticism of jones I don't understand some previous posts, hoping for a defeat so he gets sacked. Seems a bit narrow minded to me. I m struggling to see how we can get out of the dip we are in too, but as fans we want to loose ....... Ever!.

this was always going to be a tough game that we were never going to get points from. However the next 3 games we have are MASSIVE, and 6 points is a minimum, if DJ doesnt do well in them then i think he's a gonna!

I wasn't wishing for a defeat more speculating whether if we lost it might tip the balance in favour of DJ going sonner rather than later. I worry now that so narrow a defeat may encourage MM that DJ is turning a corner. Let's face it MM's on the horns of dilemma. To protect his investment he has to make sure we stay up. Does he give DJ three more games and if he does go after that give his successor less time to manoeuvre with transfers or act now and give someone else more time. Posts on here have been questioning when MM will act after every game for the last month and all we've had is a vote of confidence for DJ: I'm more worried now than I was Friday. Its the start of December and if Ipswich had three more points we'd be one of four teams in effect seven points adrift. Even now it will take some manager and some turn around to ease my anxiety.

DJ's latest post-match comment (and it's a classic, folks!): "The players did everything we asked of them and it got us into a drawing position that could've turned into a win. What we didn't do was turn it into a draw, we let it slip away, and how many times have we said that this season?" How many times has anyone come out with a statement like that, ever? No wonder the message isn't getting across to the players if that's what he's saying in the dressing room. But to cut through all the smoke 'n mirrors, the aim was to hold out for 0-0 and try and nick it on the break. We did okay with the first part for 80mins but left it too late to score ourselves. Yeah, that bit's familiar.